What would get you dev-ing for Gentoo?

Dr.Willy · Guru Joined: 15 Jul 2007 Posts: 413 Location: NRW, Germany

Oh, one more thing for you cokey: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-816607-start-50.html

speeddemon · Apprentice Joined: 27 Sep 2003 Posts: 162

pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 16488

speeddemon · Apprentice Joined: 27 Sep 2003 Posts: 162

poly_poly-man · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 5:01 am Post subject:

I'm becoming an Alpha Arch tester - basically half a dev, I'd be on the alpha@g.o alias and I'd get my name in changelogs and stuff, but without any of the developer access to anything or without my own g.o address. A few of us alpha guys are working on becoming devs, too (the AT project helps us help gentoo/alpha).

Currently there's a backlog in recruiting - devs are literally taking months to process through. There are currently two of us waiting for the AT thing to clear (this won't take long - one dev with whom we have contact has to add us to a couple of lists), and a few of us are waiting to become devs. Which will take some time.

As for regular development for gentoo - I've found the perfect angle. In the normal, x86/amd64 world, there are too many devs doing only certain things - what this means is, anything I can fix either ends up fixed within minutes by other devs, or I can't do anything about (stabilization requests, etc). I occasionally pick up a bug here or there (I fixed read-edid for kernel 2.6.26, and ended up maintainer of that package), but that's out of necessity. For the most part, I'll pick an angle that nobody's explored, and occasionally put some work into it (see poly-p-ux - the not-quite-ever-dead distro that will be cool someday), or help out people with whom I actually have a voice - and that's why I'm with alpha.

With the alpha community, when you work on a bug, you *all* work on a bug. Either it's a quick fix, in which case you really might be first to it (I fixed an ed segfault once - simple fix), or it's hard, in which case everyone's helping you do compiles to test the error, and directly through your help, you provide maybe 1/7 or 1/8 of the final solution... work that directly benefits you and 7 other people (probably more, including those without a voice

)

It may not be the most important work, but people have already got the important stuff handled... this makes you feel good inside, and good when you can put that you're a gentoo Arch Tester on your resume

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kallamej · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 11:16 am Post subject:

cokey · Advocate Joined: 23 Apr 2004 Posts: 3343

Naib · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 12:43 pm Post subject:

Aside from the politics and a certain clique (which is a big turn-off for quite a few...) Gentoo needs to sort out the ringposting that is going on.

As gentoo grew the need for "some" bureaucracy was needed, problem is quite a few dev's started just sticking to their area's...
Every 6months I run a bunch of scripts over the tree and determine what packages are in need for a stabilization call (I then assign to correct herd/dev). One dev actually responded "Don't ever ask to stabilize one of my packages!"

W.T.F. a package that has been operating fine in ~arch for over 6months and some dev goes all ivory tower on my because I was doing something for the community...

There are alot of packages that are just left to rot or not bumped simply because people stick to their area's and pull the "I volunteer my time". There needs to be like a core list and every month or so a kinda mini-sprint where dev's regardless of their herd help to bump packages and bring other herds that are understaffed uptodate. Take a look at php... one dev and php-5.3 has been out for over a year AND NOWHERE NEAR THE TREE!!! other dev's don't do much because "I work in my herd"

Seriously FFS there needs to be more of a group collaboration, the kind of thing that happened in the early gentoo days. When gentoo starts acting more as a team as opose to islands with lose associations I and others might reconcider
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aidanjt · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 12:48 pm Post subject:

And user involvement and active engagement. And since developers pay absolutely no heed to users these days, this post will be summarily ignored and lead to nothing.
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runningwithscissors

arttuv · n00b Joined: 05 Jun 2007 Posts: 8

speeddemon · Apprentice Joined: 27 Sep 2003 Posts: 162

++ to the last 4 posts
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erm67 · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 3:45 pm Post subject:

Gentoo is dying, again?
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Kenji Miyamoto · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 3:51 pm Post subject:

w1n73rmu7e · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 4:31 pm Post subject:

If Arch added support for installing old versions of packages and didn't become unbootable after kernel updates so frequently, I would seriously consider jumping ship. When it comes to keeping packages up-to-date, they are unmatchable.
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yngwin · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 4:49 pm Post subject:

w1n73rmu7e · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 4:58 pm Post subject:

Ric95 · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 4:59 pm Post subject:

I intend to support that which supports me. I have freeloaded off of open source for a while now...

As of now, I don't know enough to have an opinion, so I think I'll learn a bit about developing, but I'm not good with politics. Maybe if enough of us look into this we can change it. At the very least, I'll learn more.
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